


day ii-v // take my hand, this world was made for the both of us

by zfic



Series: kristanna smut week 2020// [2]
Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: ? - Freeform, Alternate Universe, Baby making, Bearstoff, Beast AU, F/M, Fantasy AU, Kristanna Smut Week 2020 (Disney), Mates, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Political Marriage, eye emoji, in which kristoff is a shifter and anna is his more than willing bride, more like
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:13:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25843384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zfic/pseuds/zfic
Summary: kristoff is the beast under the Mountain, anna his fates-decreed bride. small snapshots following their married life for kristanna smut week 2020
Relationships: Anna & Kristoff (Disney), Anna/Kristoff (Disney)
Series: kristanna smut week 2020// [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1875256
Comments: 4
Kudos: 28





	1. day ii // into the mystic

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoy!! loved writing this au and all its lore - especially the little traditions and ceremony they have in there hhhhh

“This isn’t what I was expecting, you know.”

The great white beast snorted, its breath clouding in the cold night, and turned the side of its head up towards where Anna was astride its back.

_-And what were you expecting?_

Anna shivered as the deep voice caressed the inner domes of her mind. It was effortlessly lyrical, a far cry from the practiced musicality of her fiancee. She shook her head. _Ex_ fiancee _._

Because that night the Taking had come. Every five years a woman of the town would be chosen to marry a beast of the Mountain. And this year that woman was her.

Nobody knew who’d be chosen. They were prepared for it from the time of their first blood to womanhood. Been educated in the custom. But nobody knew who would go and who would stay. It would simply happen when the moon became fat with light in the sky on the twelfth month of the year. Like a match igniting, a lock unlatching, she had felt it. A pull towards the looming might of the Mountain that weakened her knees.

Anna was foolish enough to have accepted Hans’s offer of marriage. No unwed woman on the Taking year would have entertained the risk. But fate had showed Anna a rude awakening.

The beasts never entered the town. They would wait on the border for their bride to approach them. Anna was well aware she could have refused, run back to her house and severed the bond. But it was not how things were done. It was not how things were ever done.

Shame would bleed over her family, and she had to keep that from happening. At all costs.

So she hitched a cloak over her shoulders, said goodbye to her friends and what was left of her family. Hans had shut her away the moment news reached him. Not that she was all that concerned. It was a political match, and she’d be a liar if she said she wasn’t relieved their engagement had broken off.

Anna trudged through the snow without another look back, far too tired of keeping everything together to care what she had to leave behind.

The beast was silent and still as she had approached. Antlers the length of oak tree branches erupted from the head of a bear. Muscle and fur whiter than the snow itself packed densely beneath heavy shoulders.

But its _eyes._

Like burnished gold. The rays of an autumn sun. Warmth and earth and-

She drew nearer, unable to help herself.

It placed its great snout on her stomach, drifting down to sniff at her woollen dress.

She hadn’t forgotten what the old priestesses had walked her through when they explained what would happen tonight.

Steeling her breath against the cold, Anna reached behind her and untied the ribbons of her dress. She dumped the articles one by one until all that remained was the cloak around her shoulders. She was bare.

But she wasn’t cold. Not in the slightest.

A rumble of appreciation curled through its body before the beast bowed its mighty head. Fealty.

Then it lowered its body. Service.

Anna climbed on without a second thought.

The fur of its back was silky between her legs and she pulled herself forward to lay her front across it as they head off.

_-And what were you expecting?_

“Definitely not manners.”

She felt something like a chuckle rumble through her head, _I’m on my best behaviour. It’s not everyday you get married, right?_

Anna stroked a hand through the tuft of softer fur at the top of its head. The beast sounded young. Around her age, perhaps. “The wife of a beast.” She mused.

_-You’re not…you’re not upset? Angry?_

Did he sound uncertain? Anna couldn’t tell. But she did know one thing: “There was nothing left for me over there.” She stopped, prepared to hold her tongue in fear of being chided for talking too much, laughing too much, _being_ too much.

_-My lady?_

She frowned, and she realised this for what it was. Freedom. Anna sat up, gathering the white fur in her small fists, “You know, I thought if I could laugh, if I could find joy in anything, I’d be alright. I was safe because I could smile. But I realised too late I wasn’t smiling for myself anymore. I was smiling for my fiancee or my sister or my parents’ graves-”

Anna bit her lip, staring out into the snowy wilderness, finding beauty in even the bare bones of the trees around them, “I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t even content.”

She looked down at where her own thatch of hair met the beast’s, “I want to start again. I want to be Anna without being Anna - Lady Elsa’s lonely sister.”

The beast once again turned its head to meet her eye, _Welcome, Anna._ It lifted its gaze upwards, and past a few more trees, they came to the base of the Mountain.

And the crystal lined cave carved within it. Candlelight and moonstone glittered within, casting soft, welcoming glows across the rugs and the cushions and the blankets. In the centre, a fire pit, a metal frame holding a pot over it. Paintings of wolves and stags and bears lined the walls, beneath which plates of dye and powdered pigment lay.

Anna slipped from the beast’s back and took a tenuous step into the cave. The crystals made up the majority of the ceiling and the far wall, and beyond that still, another opening. She registered a flicker of light, but the chamber was significantly darker than the present one.

A thousand and one thoughts bombarded her. And a thousand and one answers settled them all. And when she turned, her breath caught in her throat.

He stood in his human form - tall, broad, sandy hair dusted over thick cords of muscle beneath the weather beaten skin of his arms, legs, chest, trailing over his toned stomach to his arousal.

But his _face._ Masculine yet soft, locks of hair falling across the same warm eyes.

Apart from his size and the strange welcoming glow of his eyes, the only inhuman parts of him were the curling antlers protruding from the sides of his head, this time tucked close to his ears.

Wild, male and priapic, Anna could only fall in love.

And he stared at her as if he felt exactly the same. He held out a hand and swallowed, the tender expression of his own nervousness a strange contrast against his powerful scarred neck.

Anna didn’t take his hand. Not at first. Instead, she lifted slightly trembling fingers to the cord of her cloak and undid it, letting the heavy wool fall to the ground.

He sighed, the breath escaping pink lips, and fitted her tiny hand in his, “My name is Kristoff,” he said, his cheeks tinged with colour, “I’m your mate.”

Indeed, she felt the connection to him. The tension vibrating between them, setting her limbs tense with restlessness, her abdomen flooding and with heat, her heart filled with the homecoming of it all.

Kristoff bent his head towards her, pulling her an inch closer by rough, gentle fingers, “We don’t have to - tonight.”

Anna shook her head, fiery waves tickling her bare back, “I want to.” She was keenly aware of her peaked nipples and the throbbing between her legs, “I think I need to.” She whispered with a smile.

Another inch, “Gods, I don’t want to hurt you.”

Anna took a step forward, placing a hand on his chest and caressing downwards to his sternum, “I’m your mate,” she said, repeating his words, “you can’t.”

As if a thread snapped, a fire kindled, Kristoff’s arms were around her and he bent to kiss her. Anna opened her mouth to explore his own, arms winding around his neck, fingers sweeping through his hair.

Shw whimpered against his lip when he cupped her bottom and pulled her up the length of him. His cock pressed against her stomach, hard and in need of her, and she hooked her feet behind his back.

Then Kristoff began walking to that dark chamber behind her.

The light around them dampened and she was being lain across more woven blankets and cushions. Above them hung a canopy, but she could hardly get a look at it before Kristoff’s body obscured her view. Demanding kisses and touches and mewls and direction from her as his hands roamed her body.

Her opening begged for him. Even if it was just his fingers. She needed _anything_.

So she grabbed his wrist and guided his path from her breast to between her legs where he obliged her.

A stroke had her sighing.

A strong finger delving between her folds and into her had her crying.

And he watched her. Silent and studious, taking Anna’s noises guidance, her breathing as law. Then when her hips began to buck, her back began to arch, he stopped.

Anna opened her eyes, “Kristoff?”

His eyes flashed with something primal at hearing his own name from her swollen lips. He took a thigh in each hand and spread her wide, stretching her open for him.

In return, Kristoff palmed his cock, guiding himself to her entrance. An offer of himself to her.

Anna, still rattled from his deft fingers, nodded, the anticipation thundering through her veins.

Their eyes locked. He rolled his hips forward, throwing her legs over his shoulders and thrust into her.

She cried out, back arching, and dug her head into the pillows she rested on. Inching further and further into her, her cry pitched into a soft whine. Her own fingers could _never._

“Anna…” Kristoff growled, his cheeks stained with effort, as he continued filling her, hands creeping up the bed on either side of her head to hold himself over her.

“Please, Kristoff…”

He breathed in, retreated, then drove back into her. Anna screamed, her hands flying from their places on his hips to grab at his horns. Kristoff growled again, deeper this time, and slammed a hand into the wall behind her.

There was absolutely no purchase she could find, however, to tether her to this world as she was fucked by her beast. Again and again and again, till she all she could do was feel and watch.

She would love this male, she managed to think as he mated with her, their bond manifesting and solidifying. There was much to be learned from each other, but she wore her heart on her sleeve, a smile on her face for anyone who would deign ask her why. It would be simple loving him, knowing him. She would love him with ardour and devotion and she knew, eyes locked on his, he would love her the same way, too.

Krisoff slipped a hand through her sweat soaked hair and cupped the nape of her neck. His muscles tensed, the irises of his eyes merely a thin ring around his expanded pupils. With a hard kiss to her lips, Anna reached that precipice.

She clenched around him, screaming his name, and was rewarded with a roar as his seed, hot and strong and now _hers,_ filled her.

Anna felt the unavoidable need to bear down on the heavy weight of his cock, and with a cry she discharged her own warmth. The release had her reeling, and he gripped the back of her head once more to watch as he pulled out of her.

Their erotic mess gave her heart a possessive edge in its thundering beat. That they had claimed each other was not lost on her.

Neither was the possibility that they could have made a child this night.

Kristoff matched her gaze and kissed her, their mutual understanding sealed.

Anna waited until he left her warmth and gathered her in his arms to fall into a dead sleep. The last thought swimming through her head as she wrapped her legs around his thigh, both ridiculous and not for so short a time together, that she may have already fallen for him.

And that was the best thing she could’ve done for herself.


	2. day iii // turnabout is fair play

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anna muses on the inevitable a month on from her marriage, indeed, falling in love was simple

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sighhhhh

Three days.

Anna had counted. Three days for her to fall in love with Kristoff. Three days to give every cell of her heart over to him. Not the foolish naive love she had coloured her life with before their mating. No, those colours seemed dull and sad looking back now.

Anna muses on these thoughts as she sprawls in bed, eyes lazily studying the maps of stars painted onto the walls and ceiling of their chamber. She hadn’t seen this on the night of the Taking. She’d been too distracted by _him_ to pay attention to anything around her. The canopy was still down, drawn around their pile of wools and pillows and cushions, but the candlelight shone through the thin material and the stars, each represented by a small moonstone, were out every night.

Legs splayed, she idly circles a finger around her nub, waiting for Kristoff to come back from hunting. She was so warm, so comfortable and, she might as well admit it, lazy.

They had bathed together in the hot springs further into the Mountain this morning and she had gone with him to find the nearest berries and mushrooms and herbs for their meals. They rambled through the forest together, and she had never felt cold once.

Anna had asked him about it a little over a month ago when they were first mated. He took her wrist and pulled her closer, turning it over to softly blow on the sensitive skin there.

It glowed.

Anna gaped and snatched her hand back for a closer look, but the soft light faded.

Kristoff had laughed, deep and carefree, and explained that they warmed each other through the bond. The further away they were, the colder.

“Try it.” He said, angling his head to the side and exposing his neck.

Anna tiptoed, even as he bent towards her, and blew on his skin. Her eyes widened in delight when, indeed, his skin glowed.

And then he growled, grabbed her around the waist and had her against a tree.

In the month they were mated, woman and beast, they learned everything they needed to know about each other. He was born in the Mountain, the strongest of his mother’s litter and future protector of the family. He was a couple of years older than her even though she knew there was something ancient that beat within him, something as old as Nature itself.

She learnt he was protective and strong, stoic but vulnerable. That he loved walking around without a stitch on and often had her do the same if they were alone.

His mother, broad shouldered Bulda with the kindest face she had only ever seen replicated in her son, had brought her dresses and wools and cottons - no skins or furs - and stones and gems. She brought her barley and wheat and smoked meats. And plenty of hugs.

Anna smiles at the memory of Kristoff’s red face and soft smile at the automatic love between her and his mother.

And she maintains the first thing she ever said to him: that this wasn’t what she was expecting. She didn’t expect to _want_ him. Constantly. She didn’t expect to wake up wet and hot and totally in need of his touch.

She widens her legs, pulling her knees closer to her body and quickening her fingers. And when she opens her eyes, he’s leaning against the entrance of their chamber watching her.

Anna smiles, eyes flicking down to his arousal, and bites her lip when he grins back. Then she’s on her knees with his lips trailing down her spine and she thinks, _No, she didn’t expect this at all._


	3. day iv // the altar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> time to make a baby

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes yes yes.... i wrote a rut fic :PPPP

Apparently, and Anna would never have known this if Kristoff hadn’t sat her down one evening and explained it to her. That the beasts of the mountain, among the many other beasts scattered around the wilder parts of the world, went through a phase every other month called a rut.

A rut was as simple as it was intense. And that they’re bodies, their cycles, would align to suit this.

Kristoff had knawed on his lip, his cheeks a shade ruddier than usual. He had taken a deep breath and described it all without a single pause. His rut was approaching and, this he said quietly, he wouldn’t be able to separate himself from her the entire time. The need to procreate would override any other thought that wasn’t instinctual, wild, and any threat to them would drive him to spill blood.

He had looked her in the eye and asked, his voice barely a whisper over the rustling trees and the trickle of the brook beneath their cave, “Will you join me?”

It occured to Anna, over the course of her young marriage, that she had developed the ability to pick apart the wide array of nearly indistinguishable emotion from her husband’s face and (quite proudly) read his mind.

There were these… _nuances_ that she notices now. Small shifts, a quirked eyebrow here, an almost imperceptible clench of jaw there. At first he was never one to express much, anyway. His love was shown through his actions; a soft swipe of palm against her rump, nuzzling the back of her neck after returning home from a hunt, weaving her baskets, feeding her berries.

Then when they went to the Summer Gathering, a fête to mark the summer solstice, a couple of the younger and newly Dawned beasts had attempted to make conversation with her, suggestive conversation. (It was rare for mated women to break her bond and re-bond with another beast, but not unheard of).

One of them had reached out - and Kristoff was suddenly there, stood between her and them, his horns growing to fan out around his head like an intimidating crown. He growled, once. And their knowing parents pulled the green beasts away from her and her husband, muttering apologies to them and chastisements to their overconfident young.

The fête resumed as if nothing had happened, but Kristoff stayed by her side for the entire time.

Bulda had pulled her aside a couple of days after during one of her impromptu visits and explained the culture to her. The freshly Dawned beasts were fairly sheltered before they grew into senior members of their respective families, and it was at events such as the Summer Gathering that they’d get a taste of true Mountain beast tribalism.

She also hoped Kristoff didn’t frighten Anna, and that though it would be a good idea for him to tone down the gallantry, it wouldn’t be very wise to assume her male would.

But, she thought as Bulda hugged her and left, Anna didn’t _want_ him to tone down a thing. The slice of desire that shot through her when he set his clear boundaries around her was impossible to ignore. She _liked_ it.

Some may call her terrible for thinking so, but damn, his sudden and public territorialism was so unlike the shy gradients of affection he showed her outside their bedroom. She was _his_ mate. And heaven help anyone that should defy the fact.

So when he had asked to join him in his rut, she could see _everything_ behind those careful eyes. The priapic need to sow his seed in her. The flare of protectiveness she caught a glimpse of at the Gathering. The care to make it _her_ choice.

Anna smiled, cupped his cheek and blushed when he turned his face to kiss the heart of her palm, “When do we start?”

In three days, apparently.

Anna sits now in their bedroom, arranging some supplies they picked and gathered in case…sustenance was necessary. Indeed, she was hotter these past few days. Her breasts and thighs sensitive, the meeting of her thighs aching.

Then she hears it. His roar past the clearing beyond their cave. It has begun.

She quickly takes off her wools and cottons and lies back on their bed. A beat. Two. Three.

And he is standing at the threshold, fully aroused and half changed and far, far greater in size. His horns have grown almost fully, though they still curl towards the back of his head. But his eyes - fixed, determined, totally focused on her.

Kristoff skulks towards her and crouches to take each of her ankles in hand, pulling her open to him. Anna glances between his own legs and shudders at the sight of his engorged base.

She had never desired something more.

Anna whines and reaches for his shoulders, her body heat rising as her arousal leaks onto the blankets beneath them. But he holds her wrists fast above her head and slides into her.

Maybe she needs to cry, maybe she needs to laugh, maybe she needs to scream. Perhaps all at once because she feels every part of him - the swell of his tip, his strong veins, the sweet heaviness of his length. Anna hears him grunt above her and she opens her eyes.

Kristoff growls as their gazes meet and she knows he’s holding himself in check, keeping that most natural part of him at bay.

Absolutely not.

“Please, Kris,” she whispers up at him, “give me your children.”

He is silent, and she wriggles beneath him.

And the thread snaps as he draws back to flip her onto her hands and knees and _fuck_ into her. Anna arches her back and moans, gripping the blankets in tight fists.

His hands find her breasts, her nipples poking out from between his fingers. She is totally immovable as he moves within her hard and fast.

Kristoff nips at her shoulders before flipping her over again and pulling her against his chest. He kneels, and she sinks lower and lower onto him. As if his is the only soul permitted to submit himself at her alter, Anna takes his knot.

They pant, held fast onto one another, and he sows hot life in her womb. She is stretched so wide, filled so fully, Anna can only relish in the sensation. Their eyes meet and she can tell the wilderness in his eye hasnt yet left him, that there’s a chance they’ll be joined again this night.

Kristoff grits his teeth and flicks his hips up into her in small, soft movements. Then slowly, carefully, they watch him pulls his cock from her and his seed spill out.

“Kris…” Anna moans, in need once more.

He doesn’t reply, but with a small bite beneath her jaw and his fingers working her swollen sex, she has all the answers she needs.


	4. day v // wild card babey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> pregnancy questions are answered and anna, obviously, gets her way

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LOREEEE

Kristoff passes a languid hand up Anna’s side, over her thigh, hip and waist to rest on her swollen belly. She hums, half asleep this quiet early morning, and reaches up and behind her to cup the side of his face.

He kisses her palm and shuffles forward to press his wide chest against the slim curve of her back. When his cock, hard and already seeping with desire, nudges against her thigh she sighs and brings his lips down to hers.

This is how they have spent their mornings since Anna fell pregnant with their second cub. Quiet and luxuriously simple, while their first cub, Espen, is none the wiser and sleeping soundly in his little nook Kristoff carved out of their wall beside their bedding. The mouth of his tiny cave, slightly bigger to fit the growing two-year-old’s height, is covered with a thick woven blanket, Ursae Majoris and Minoris both stitched into the blue fibres.

Kristoff rubs her stomach, stretched wide holding their babe, and pecks soft little kisses across her bare shoulder. She stretches her neck out, eyes still closed, to give him more heated skin to pay attention to.

She could almost laugh at how different this pregnancy is compared to her last one. Kristoff didn’t touch her for _weeks_ after she first started showing. He’d pet and rub and kiss her stomach, sure, but make love? Out of the question.

Anna knew he had been terrified of hurting her or the baby. But she was slowly losing her mind, particulary after month five passed and her desperation to be filled, to be overwhelmed in him called for brave, albeit slightly stupid, measures.

Every winter solstice, the Winter Gathering would take place. Beasts from across the land would gather with their mates to celebrate twelve months of peace and the bounty of the coming new year. Allies would be strengthened and the sweet drink would flow. Sometimes their relationship with the human communities would be discussed, he told her, other times they couldn’t care less.

Anna could tell Kristoff liked his little corner of the world, away from the drama and the noise of the larger beast broods. But she was excited, and she was happy he was looking forward to meeting his old friend, Sven, leader of the Western Herd. They had presented together as the fresh generation to lead their respective packs, and have been close ever since.

A field at the centre of the Highmount Forest, east of their mountain, was where the gathering was held, equidistant to each brood dotted around the continent.

Bulda dressed her in fine cottons and wools, her dress was thick and warm and comfortable, like a blanket, and her soft leather boots was heaven on her swollen feet. The style of the gown was simple enough; fitted around the small swell of her belly with wide sleeves ballooning around her elbows, cuffed again around her slim wrists. Red and yellow and blue woollen thread depicting antlered bears running and playing beneath a starry sky were embroidered around her skirt, all intricately decorated with iridescent beetle wings, clay beads and round cut moonstones.

She wound more painted beads through the coronet around her head, wisps of fiery red hair pulled free of the braids to frame her face at each temple.

Kristoff had dressed in a similar colour palette as her, a heavy wool cloak with the same designs covered one shoulder, the other proudly sporting a huge silver medallion to pin it in place - the head of a starry eyed bear worked into the metal. His tunic underneath was open at the chest, fastened at his waist with thick belt. His trousers were a deep red wool and tucked into sturdy boots.

He had let his beard grow thick and full this winter and Anna could remember the want that had turned to liquid iron in the pit of her stomach at her first sight of him in such clothes. In so _many_ clothes, to be fair.

Kristoff grinned down at her, teasing her about her blush and murmuring in her ear how beautiful she looked. The queen under the Mountain.

She flirted back, despite herself, and took his hand to be led to the Meister Mage’s cave, Kristoff’s ancient grandfather who he had affectionately named Grand Pabbie when he was a cub.

Grand Pabbie smiled warmly at them when they stepped through the mouth of his cave and walked through to the Seeking Stones in the furthermost chamber. The tall ceiling echoed with the quiet content sounds of ancient and resting spirits, their ancestors. Four stones were set at each point of the room: north, south, east, and west. In the centre, runes had been carved into the floor, bears and humans alike walking along the deep rivulets and ridges to the fine point in the middle of the circle.

They had travelled this way once before, to the top of the mountain after Anna found out they had conceived to receive the blessings of their most ancient ancestor, the Mother of the Mountain. For the Winter Gathering, they’d travelled far further. Stepping between the Seeking Stones, Anna watched Grand Pabbie raise his arms, and then they were stood in a thick green forest of ash, fig and olive trees, cool wind caressing their cheeks and rustling the canopy above them.

Then she saw them.

Beasts of all sizes changing before her eyes. Some, like Kristoff, came in the human form, but others shifted from huge wildebeasts to sharp featured peoples with long inky hair combed and plaited back. Tigers with pointed horns turning close to their skulls became men dressed in rich guilded fabric, their turbans decorated with jewels and gold. Another kind of bear, black and white and built strong and large shifted into broad warriors, their silken robes tied at the front.

She could barely believe her eyes.

Anna held on to Kristoff’s arm as they carefully made their way into the clearing at the centre of the Forest, the field grass rising to their thighs, bushes of lavender and thyme encircling them.

From every corner beasts appeared from nowhere. An elephant two meters high trumpeted as it hulked into the large clearing, a woman in orange, yellow and red printed fabrics proudly riding its back. Anna gasped, her cheeks reddening with excitement.

Kristoff had bent low to whisper to her, “Pretty cool, huh?”

She smiled up at him and placed a hand on her bump, “These are your people. All of them.”

Kristoff chuckled from his great height and tightened his arm around her waist, “Our people, Anna. You are my mate.” He glanced down, and Anna saw the heat in his eyes despite his control around her. Anna swallowed, knowing that there was never any doubt he still wanted her, but to protect her and their cub, he’d do anything. Even deny himself pleasure in her.

“And the mother of my cub.”

Their grins matched one another and together they joined the ranks of beasts as they gathered. A tall beast, red curls clubbed back to show off his blue and white face paint, stood on a stone table and called attention.

He welcomed them, a thick accent with rolling r’s and deep l’s, and raised a goblet to toast to the year’s successful peace. Goblets like it appeared in all their hands, spiced wines and lemon infused water scenting the cool air around them. The beasts cheered and they drank.

The evening passed quickly, Anna meeting what seemed like hundreds of beasts and their mates.

She had _fun_.

Fun in a way she’d never experienced at balls and dances before she married. These people were _real_ and unapologetic - they didn’t flinch when she laughed loudly, didn’t squirm when her excitable nature bubbled up out of her.

Meeting Sven, tall and gangly with a mop of brown curls dusting across his large eyes, was the highlight of the evening. He constantly teased Kristoff and joked with Anna about anything and everything. His mate, Herdis, long and lithe with a shock of white hair falling down her back, was the quiet antithesis to Sven’s brashness.

She was listening to a conversation between Kristoff, Sven and a leopard beast, his dark skin luminous in the torch light, when she spied movement to her left. A small woman, young, dressed in long black silks walked easily through the sparser crowd. Her dark hair was long, reaching well past her waist, and loosely curled. Behind her, two little cubs, black haired and golden eyed, held onto to her skirts and walked along with her.

She looked back to her children, saying something to them, and when she turned back their eyes met - hers, rimmed in kohl, were a bottomless black. She smiled at Anna, full lips pulling prettily at the corners, and Anna watched as she lifted the black and gold embroidered shawl wrapped around her shoulders and tilted her body to show Anna the tiny babe suckling at her breast.

Anna’s eyes lit up and she smiled at the little thing tucked closed to their mother. The woman sat on a flatstone beneath an olive tree, her children sitting neatly at her feet, leaning their small backs against her shins and Anna couldn’t help but feel she needed to be there, too.

“Go.” Herdis said to her softly, “Most mates speak with her at some point.”

“Who is she?” Anna asked, hands landing softly on the top of her bump.

“She’s one of the oldest of us.” Herdis smiled, “Go on, you won’t be far from him.”

Anna breathed a sigh, relieved that Herdis picked up on the reason behind her hesitation. She nodded and touched her fingers to Kristoff’s arm. He looked down at her and followed the direction her gaze was pointed towards. His own eyes widened and he rubbed at her lower back before she began waddling her way to the olive tree.

She heard Herdis say something to Kristoff behind her, and Sven respond, but she was too far at this point to pick up what it was.

Anna stood in front of the mate, eyes blown wide with curiosity, “Uh… Hi!”

The mate looked up at her and smiled, “Hello.”

“I’m Anna. Anna Arendelle, I’m-”

“Kristoff’s mate, yes.” She patted empty place beside her for Anna to sit, “Take the weight off your feet, you must be tired.”

In fact, Anna hadn’t realise she was until the mate mentioned it, the excitement and adrenaline of the evening taking over, instead. She sat gratefully, sighing in relief as the weight eased off her back, knees and ankles.

“Did you enjoy your first Winter Gathering?” The mate asked, lifting her baby out from beneath her shawl and patting their back while her two other cubs had begun to rough about in the long grass.

“Yes! It was so magical and the _people_ \- gosh, they’re all so beautiful, I’ve never seen-” She cut herself off, worried she was gushing and talking too much.

But the mate only smiled at her, tilting her head, “This isn’t a gathering of town gentlefolk, queen under the Mountain. You may speak freely here without fear of reproach,” she nodded to the beasts laughing and talking around them, “as you have been doing this night.”

Anna’s face coloured.

But the mate took no notice and turned to her children, speaking to them in a language Anna had never heard before. The language was light and poetic, her tongue rolling and dipping to accommodate the words. The children leapt up and rubbed their faces against her knees, smiling when her hand ruffled through their thick curls, and shifted quickly into a pair of lion cubs, their black coats shining as they barrelled away from their mother and Anna to weave their way through the guests.

“Where are they going?”

“To their father, hopefully. He’ll know they’re coming, regardless, but I expect a little,” she paused and chuckled, “interference before they get to him.”

Anna breathed a laugh, looking back out to spy the lion cubs tackling each other to the ground before picking up and running around again. Her chest felt heavy, suddenly, her cheeks heating as a lump formed in her throat.

It was her future with Kristoff. Children. Many, many children. As many as she could give him. Give _herself_. She saw breezy blonde hair darkening to his shade as they grow older. Freckles on all of them. One, perhaps two, with her hair, but his eyes. Always his eyes.

Anna spread her fingers over her belly. From the moment she found out she was pregnant, Anna had been inconsolably happy. But it had been a far off prospect. Not quite real. And yet, there was her reality. Little feet and gappy teeth and tiny antlers and half of him and half of her.

The mate beside her was quiet as Anna saw _everything_ within the space of a second. Unable to voice it all, she swallowed her elation, wiping tears from her rosy cheeks, “I-”

“Whatever you saw,” the mate whispered, amused, “don’t tell me. That is between you and your mate.”

“How did you _know_?”

A slim shoulder rose and fell in a shrug, “I’ve been around a while. Now, you have a question?”

Anna was well beyond embarrassment and surprise by this point and simply stated, “Kristoff thinks he’s going to hurt me or the baby if we have sex.”

The mate rolled her eyes, “Honestly. Tell him don’t be ridiculous, just be careful. He can even knot you, but you’ll both have to do it very gently and slowly.”

She suppressed a shudder at the memory of Kristoff’s rut, the skin of her arm rising in gooseflesh. Yes, he could be gentle. “I knew it! But, how do I convince him?”

“Seduce him.” The mate said with a glint in her eye, laying her little cub in the crook of her elbow to sleep, “And reassure him. Only you know how.”

“He can be stubborn.” Anna sighed, biting her lip and looking towards her husband. Their gazes met and she waved, smiling warmly when he gave a little wave back.

“I have a feeling that so can you.” The mate grinned, “These bouts of desire are dim reflections of what your heat will become in a few years. And once he sees you in need, _truly_ in need for the first time, he’ll do whatever he can to satisfy his woman.”

It was then that Anna blushed and she suspected her face had reddened up to the roots of her hair, “I’ll try.”

“And I’ll wish for the best for you, queen under the mountain.”

Anna blinked, amazed that the mate would know so much about her and yet, “I don’t know your name.”

The mate laughed, “It isn’t in our custom to give our first names, my title is Zawjat al-Assad, but that’s a bit of a tongue twister, hm?” She brushed the curls from her babe’s forehead, “Acquaintances call me Rajani.” She smiled up at Anna, “Friends call me Zia.”

“Zia.” Anna breathed as that word chimed through her head: _friend_. A friend. “Your name is beautiful.”

“And yours is strong, and nurturing, and kind. Perfect for many more cubs to come, I can tell for certain.”

“I hope there isn’t such thing as too many cubs.” She said before she could stop herself, passing her hands over her belly and down the front of her intricately designed skirt. “The most children a couple would have back in my old life would be two, maybe three.” Anna thought back to her vision, because that’s what it was, and grew warm once again as Zia confirmed her thinking.

“Nonsense.” Zia said decidedly, “Perhaps like me you’ll slow down after your seventh or eighth, but your cubs will be your _lifeblood._ And making them? _Well_.”

They shared a look and giggled like schoolgirls when a tall, slender young woman approached them, hair in dark curls cascading down her back. Her skin was a lighter shade than Zia’s, whose own was a tan brown, her nose straighter, but there was no mistaking whose child she was with those golden eyes matching so closely to her siblings.

“I suppose that’s my cue to depart your company, queen under the mountain.” Zia sighed, nodding at her daughter, “It seems my daughter and her father have finished their rounds.”

“Of course! Thank you for answering my question.” _And helping me see all that awaits me._

“On the contrary,” she stood and tucked her cub’s head beneath her jaw, “thank _you_ for asking it. Probably the most interesting question I’ve been asked in a _while_.”

They laughed again and Anna stood, too, but hesitated before she bid her goodbye.

Zia softened, “There is no limit on questions, my friend.”

She smiled sadly, knowing that perhaps the thousands of questions about being a mate may have to wait for next year. Anna will work it out, she always did, “Just one more.” Anna pinched the pads of her fingers, “My life with Kristoff is ideal. It’s the most beautiful thing that has ever happened to me and I’m the happiest woman alive right now. It’s just…”

“Your family.”

Anna nodded, the backs of her eyes prickling at the total understanding in Zia’s face, “My sister. I-We never saw eye to eye on much, she was always rather cold to me once our parents passed, but I’m remembering our childhood and I know despite everything between us she’d be worried about me and I wondered if it was possible to visit-to visit her. Briefly. I don’t want to go back, my home is Kristoff and our cub and the Mountain. I just need her to know I’m okay - that I’m finally happy.”

The elder mate smiled in a way that showed Anna, if only for a moment, her age, the years behind her eyes, and said, “You can visit. But I don’t recommend any longer than an hour.” Zia placed her hand over her heart, “He will not be able to stand more than an hour away from you, any more he will break treaty and tradition and storm the town for you. But you’ll feel it, the distance,” she tapped once, “here.”

Tears formed in the corners of her eyes and the thought of any kind of distance from Kristoff for that length of time had Anna shaking her head, “No. Not even that. Never that long.”

Zia nodded, once, “He will drop you at the sacred border, and he’ll wait for you. Just like your first night.”

“Maman.” Her daughter called, then, speaking rapidly in yet another language to her mother and gesturing wildly at what Anna could only assume was about her smaller siblings.

Zia quipped back in the tongue she spoke to her youngsters in and sent her daughter away with a huff. She tutted, “They may look old, but they all regress into little children around their parents.” Their eyes met, “The bond between you and your mate, queen under the Mountain, is equal to only one thing, the bond you share with your cubs. And nothing is stronger than that. Not even death.”

“I feel it. I do.” Anna nodded, wiping at her cheeks with the heels of her hands, “It’s everything.”

“Then there is nothing more you need worry over.” She told her with that old smile once again, “Every mating bond is different, mine is unlike yours or unlike Herdis’s, or Mbali’s, or Tsula’s, or Eiko’s. It is your love. _You_ and _he_ make it.”

“There aren’t any rules, or anything I’m missing?”

“Traditions and customs, yes, unique to each brood. But he has taught you, no?”

Anna’s heart swelled with pride as she nodded, “He has.”

“So do not forget who is in control. This is not like the bond from your old life. Theirs is a shadow of what we boast, queen under the Mountain. Your love is attached to nothing but each other.”

And when Anna’s eyes had found Kristoff’s, every question, every anxiety that she that she hadn’t been doing _enough_ , disappeared in an instant. She knew from the moment she saw him that she loved him. Perhaps she didn’t admit it to herself right away, but she knew. Anna knew that home was Kristoff. Anna _always_ knew.

Yet, as was her nature, the irrational fear that she could give more, do more, _be_ more, niggled at the back of her head.

To Kristoff, she was more than enough. She was his. He was hers. And there wasn’t anything that could change or threaten that.

Anna had let a bubble of laughter escape her lips, “To think, this started out as a sex dilemma.”

Zia snorted, “It usually does.” Her cub cooed, waking, and pawed at her chest, “My little one needs her bed. I should go.”

“I- Thank you. For the answers.”

“My friend, the answers were yours.” Zia shrugged a shoulder, “Apart from the sex thing, but you knew that already.”

Anna laughed and grasped her skirts in one hand, the other on her bump, “Kristoff won’t know what hit him.”

Zia laughed then, too, “They never do, the poor males.”

“Will you attend again? Next year?”

“I will, queen under the Mountain.” She nodded low. Not a bow, Anna picked up quickly that none bowed to anyone in this world, “Until then.”

“Until then.” Anna repeated, nodding, too.

Zia winked and turned away.

“Oh, Zia!” Anna called before she forgot.

The elder turned, eyebrows raised.

“Call me Anna.”

Zia smiled, warm and brilliant, and nodded again, “Anna.”

And then she was gone.

In an instant, Kristoff was at her side, kissing her cheeks, her mouth, her forehead. Anna kissed him in return, winding her arms around his strong neck, stroking a gentle hand along his antlers.

They rejoined Sven and Herdis and the latter asked, “Amazing, right?”

Anna blinked disbelief, “Incredible.” She fitted her side to Kristoff’s, worn out suddenly, “How old… _is_ she?”

Sven tapped his chin, “I was still, like, super young when her daughter, Al-Labwa, was already grown, so,” he let out a puff of air from his lips, “ _old_.”

Kristoff shook his head, “They’ve been around since before I can remember.” He looked down at her from his great height and cocked an eyebrow, “Anything…you can share?”

Anna tucked her bottom lip between her teeth, “Take me home?”

Kristoff’s eyes flashed as he scented the minute change in her body, “Home.”

And she didn’t think Kristoff’s mind had ever changed that _fast_ before.

So, now they lie, a baby and a half later, sleepy and in want, his fingers tracing little patterns up and down her skin.

Anna opens her eyes and watches his strong fingers play across her belly. She gives his cock an experimental nudge with the softness of her ass and licks her lips, “Kris…” She sighs.

He chuckles from behind her, then, and his hand travels down to disapper beneath her belly and between her legs, “So wet.” He sighs, gathering her arousal from the lips of her sex and travelling up to slowly circle her bundle of nerves.

She sighs, widening her legs and propping a foot up on his knee. Anna is open for him, her arms lifting above her head to weave around his neck. From beneath her side, his other comes up and gently, so gently, cups her heavy breast, thumb and forefinger pinching her sensitive nipple lightly.

Anna whimpers, angling her hips and curving her back until the shaft of him fits within the groove of her bottom. She can feel him hot and pulsing with impatience, and she rubs.

Kristoff hisses a breath from between his teeth and he nips at her freckled shoulder, “Easy.”

“You take too much time.” She whines, watching what she can see of his wrist as he plays between her legs. Anna is slick, almost melting with need, and his fingers are lazy and teasing.

She feels him shrug behind her, “Can’t fault me for appreciating my mate’s beautiful body.”

“Maybe you can appreciate her little faster.”

He gives her breast another squeeze, a finger drafting over her engorged nipple as she leaks a drop of milk from it, “Well, _maybe_ it’s because I was a little late on the uptake that I’m taking my sweet time for as long as you’ll let me _now_. Did you think of that?”

Anna frowns, “Just-ah!” And she is cut off by his two fingers slipping up into her.

His beard scrapes against the soft skin at the back of her neck and he shushes her quietly as he moves his fingers, gradually speeding up, “I won’t ever get tired of seeing you filled with my cubs, Anna.” He says, his voice low and rough with arousal.

“I’ll never be tired of being filled by you, Kristoff.” She whispers back, “But I-I don’t want to come without your cock.” She pushes back against him, his length slotting between her cheeks fully, like she did with her breasts the week before, “Please.”

Kristoff groans and removes his fingers from her sex to grab her ass and pull her up his body, his cock slipping out from her cheeks to bounce heavily against her core. He shifts, grasping himself in one hand to guide his tip to her swollen entrance, and he makes sure, she knows, to slide into her as slowly as possible.

Anna shudders at the sublime, familiar stretch of him joining her flesh and she gasps as he seats himself fully in her. She moans, irritated she can’t _see_ the way he invades her.

But he’s moving now and all thoughts but him disappear, suddenly impatient to have her. He slips in and out of her easily, on hand holding her leg up by the back of her knee while the other swipes mercilessly at her swollen nub. She reaches higher and graps his antlers, bearing down on his cock to meet him with every thrust.

Red flames of hair stick to her forehead as she fights stay quiet. Espen is, thank the Mother, still fast asleep in his little cave, and she needs this. Needs Kristoff like this, like this, like _this_.

And her mate pants behind her, his chest damp with sweaty exertion as his hips snap against the soft swell of her bottom. Anna closes her eyes to focus on the wet scrape of the ridge of his cock inside her, and the inescapable building begins. Tight in the pit of her stomach, growing bigger and bigger until she has to slam her hands over her mouth to keep quiet. Anna bursts, coming with a shudder.

Kristoff’s hands rise to her belly to cup it gently, his fingers fanned out possessively across it. Anna lays her hands, tiny in comparison, on top of his and he fucks into her until she whines, oversensitised and still so, so wet.

His hips snap hard once, twice, and he lets a breath free as he spills into her, his body curling around her and showering kisses over the back of her neck, her shoulder, her upper arm, and Anna giggles at the tickle of his beard.

Him. Kristoff. Her best friend. The father of her children.

Anna turns her head and meets his mouth with puckered lips, their tongues touching as he ruts gently into her.

It is quiet again, and they lie for a little longer, safe, sound and _sated_.

Anna grins into another kiss and hugs his arm to her chest.

Until tomorrow, that is.


End file.
